Funny, those of us on the rest of the country wonder why the finals are East every year... Most of the seats in Cary are from club players and their families forced to buy seats as part of the youth tournament held at the same time. They go at a discount. And by holding the tournament in the same venue, you don’t grow the sport in the rest of the country. But maybe that’s the plan. If the finals were at Stanford or UCLA, for instance. Perhaps the stadium wouldn’t be half empty. I know it wouldn’t have been for this match. Look at the Ncaa attendance records. Most of the top 10 finals have been in California or Texas, San Jose being #1 and #2. Both were over 14,000
So looking at the first half, it looks like Duke is soaking up all the pressure from UCLA and leaving one player high to counter. UCLA has had A LOT of the possession. Not what I was expecting, was expecting Duke to at least have some momentum on the run of play which they really haven't with the exception of some counters. Tactically I think UCLA are playing their game right now.
Yeah, surprised duke hasn’t had half the possession. They haven’t looked great. But you can also see that if they can get it up to Dorsey/McCoy, they can score quickly. Defense in this match has ruled
Duke is good, but they can not play when they are under pressure. That is why UNC beat them 2x. Add to this UCLA ball handling and Duke is in trouble. They can still win bcz they are very good. But UCLA was better in the first half.
Story of the game as they head to PKs in my mind is Duke’s poor handling of UCLA’s high defensive pressure. Really surprising to see them struggle to push possession out of the defensive third. Duke looked like the more dangerous team when they’d get forward, opportunities just few and far between. Also surprised to see how little pressure Duke applying to the ball. Gifting UCLA 2/3 of the pitch. Not what I expected to see. And duke seemed effective the few times someone would step up to the ball.
Duke shoots first. 1 | 1 _ _ _ _ | #10 Gabi Brummett 1 | 1 _ _ _ _ | #26 Zoey Goralski 1 | 1 0 _ _ _ | #22 Malinda Allen misses 2 | 1 1 _ _ _ | #10 Julia Hernandez 2 | 1 0 1 _ _ | #18 Karlie Paschall 2 | 1 1 0 _ _ | #15 MacKenzie Cerda saved by Proctor
3 | 1 0 1 1 _ | #4 Ashton Miller 3 | 1 1 0 1 _ | #12 Sunny Dunphy 3 | 1 0 1 1 0 | #9 Kat McDonald saved by Micah 4 | 1 1 0 1 1 | #23 Marley Canales Stanford-UCLA
That happens against UNC 2X. This was a great game. Completely different what u expected. UCLA pressed Duke hard. However they were not as sophisticated as u expected. They settled down for long shots and did not play great combinations. However their defense was excellent. Duke never got any rhythm. They deserved to win. PAC-12 final. Great. It was really nice to see real soccer. No mass substitutions. The starting strikers played almost the whole game. Kayla had a great game (go Eclipse!). Duke represented ACC well. Unfortunately Stanford and UCLA are much better than the ACC teams. But it is good for women’s soccer. Possession soccer rocks. Hope ACC teams took a note.
The 14,000 attendance at SJ in 1999 gets mentioned frequently as proof that the Cup should be held in CA more regularly. However, it is a complete aberration. This was at the peak of women's soccer frenzy just 4 months after the US won the women's World Cup. The lone collegian on that US team also happened to be playing in the 1999 College Cup. The CC was also played in San Jose the following year where attendance regressed back to the mean dropping by about 5,000. I'm all for moving the Cup around the country, but it could have been held in Anchorage in 1999 and still set the attendance record.
Missed the game. At a conference in New Orleans until Sun afternoon but good friend shared results last night. Nursing a hangover buttttttt ready for bragging? UCLA! UCLA U. C. L. Aaaaaaaaaaa That was to 90 percent of the people on here who thought or predicted Duke was going to beat UCLA!!!!!!! Woot woot also your friendly reminder we will beat Stanford!!! Even if 90 percent of you say otherwise.
I cannot see Stanford losing. They are the most complete team I've seen all season, and I'm not even a fan. Their defense is stifling and the can put the ball into the back of the net.
...plus ucla played the second game and ran their legs off into overtime, while stanford was able to sub comfortably. love ucla’s game, but i’ll be shocked, SHOCKED, if they win this contest, even tho they have the revenge motivation.
Haha. Yeah, ‘cause everybody in the East sits down to lunch and a soccer game. And the way you maximize your tv audience is to have the number 2,4,5,and 8 largest markets sit down to breakfast or brunch to watch the finals. The stadium is empty.
I'm not saying Orlando was the right choice. There's no real women's college soccer fan culture in Florida. There is in North Carolina. Cali stadiums wouldn't be packed if it was two ACC teams.
As good a game as the Duke/UCLA game was bad. Andi Sullivan is the real deal. In the playoffs I was less impressed with Jesse Fleming than I thought I would be. And much less impressed with Ashley Sanchez. During the playoffs, I got fond of that tough little fullback Goralaski. But then I always like flank players. I hope to see her playing in the NWSL. And also, Anika Rodriguez, another small tough player. Both with UCLA. And that big centerback, Tierna Davidson of Stanford. Can Boissiere for Stanford declare for the draft? She's a redshirt sophomore, but has been in college 4 years -- and maybe will graduate this year. I'd say, if a player will graduate, they should be able to declare themselves eligible.
Well sure, but only if UNC and Duke were in it. If this years final was played on the West Coast it would have been packed also. In 2013 an ACC and a PAC-12 team played the final in Cary in front of less than 3,000 fans because it was raining. But you were talking TV scheduling. You schedule where the big markets are. Since you are so fond of maps with dots on them, here’s one for you which shows where the top soccer tv markets are: The top 3 are in the West. Note that seven of the top 10 are West of the Mississippi. six of the next 10 are also. In all, 20 of the 30 top markets are in the West. And lest you argue that doesn’t include women, 4 of the top 5 audiences for the two most watched womens matches in history were in the West also. The second aired between 7 and 9 PM in the East.
They have to have graduated and exhausted eligibility. But of course, if you declare or take an agent, you have. My understanding of hardship redshirts (ie injury) are that they are granted after normal eligibility is done and you need to ask for it.